In an Austin American Statesman article by Paul J. Weber, readers learn about the Secure Communities program, a federal program which went statewide in Texas today (Wed, Sept. 29). An initiative of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The program collects the fingerprints of everyone booked in local jails and checks their immigration status. Proponents of the program say it does nothing more than open the preexisting database of fingerprints to the federal government and in doing so, helps more easily identify those people that are residing in the US illegally. Critics say that it will discourage people from coming forward to identify low-level criminals for fear that the criminal (possibly a spouse or other relative) would be deported instead of merely jailed. The program has been used for two years in Houston, and has yet to meet the backlash that it has in other states. California seems to be particularly against the program. One California county has completely opted out of the program and San Fransisco mayor is in talks with the federal government to modify the program; one of the first to do so.
Personally, I support the program. As stated in the article, the fingerprints of suspects booked in jails are already sent to the federal government to check for federal criminal records. All this program does is send the fingerprints to ICE also, allowing them to check the immigration status of the individuals. This seems like very little additional work that leads to a big benefit. The immigration issue can be a very personal one, and I am all for immigration, but if people are living in this country illegally, they should be deported and this system provides an easy way to identify those individuals. Another added benefit, is that it is identifying criminals for deportation, not necessarily individuals that would otherwise be contributing to society.
You can read the article for yourself, here:
Immigration check program goes statewide in Texas
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